Western Digital Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:WDC)

Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors bought 24,530 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 21% compared to the average daily volume of 20,222 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on WDC shares. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $115.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, October 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Western Digital from $81.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. BNP Paribas lowered their target price on shares of Western Digital from $95.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Western Digital from $75.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Western Digital from $89.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $85.65.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 1,993 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.94, for a total transaction of $139,390.42. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 30,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,140,723.52. The trade was a 6.11 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO David Goeckeler sold 75,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.58, for a total transaction of $5,443,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 821,630 shares in the company, valued at approximately $59,633,905.40. The trade was a 8.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 109,107 shares of company stock valued at $7,768,381 in the last three months. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,572,686 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $926,879,000 after acquiring an additional 423,651 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,921,608 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $539,355,000 after buying an additional 76,781 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 24.6% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,711,428 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $253,453,000 after buying an additional 732,344 shares in the last quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. increased its holdings in Western Digital by 13.2% during the 3rd quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. now owns 3,287,400 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $224,497,000 after purchasing an additional 383,390 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP increased its holdings in Western Digital by 25.7% during the 3rd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 3,192,762 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $218,034,000 after purchasing an additional 651,847 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of WDC opened at $67.43 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $23.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.66 and a beta of 1.43. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $65.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $66.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 0.91. Western Digital has a 12 month low of $52.77 and a 12 month high of $81.55.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $4.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.12 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 8.57% and a net margin of 4.81%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 48.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($1.97) EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Western Digital will post 6.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Company Profile

Western Digital Corporation develops, manufactures, and sells data storage devices and solutions in the United States, China, Hong Kong, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, rest of Asia, and internationally. It offers client devices, including hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid state drives (SSDs) for desktop and notebook personal computers (PCs), gaming consoles, and set top boxes; and flash-based embedded storage products for mobile phones, tablets, notebook PCs, and other portable and wearable devices, as well as automotive, Internet of Things, industrial, and connected home applications.